trans_9 | [For Hiccup, but open.]

"And this is--" breath "--going to make me--" breath "--into a warrior--" breath "--how exactly?"

...He asked. Mildly terrified.

"Remember how I said the breath was the foundation of the body?"

Zuko sits cross-legged and to the side, just inside Hiccup's line of vision.

"Your body is pretty pathetic. So before you can use it to fight anyone, you're going to condition it. A lot."

Tact is not Zuko's middle name. Or preferred teaching method.

"It's not that--"

Hiccup tilted his head just a little too much, the glass dropped, splashing on the coals and sending up smoke, Hiccup started coughing, dropping one of the rocks on his foot, and then...

All in the course of a second, Hiccup was splayed out on the ground next to the coals, coughing, eyes watering, and holding his foot in pain.

"Okay, so it's pretty pathetic," he wheezed.

"Yeah, that's gonna happen."

Zuko stands up, but not to offer Hiccup a hand. Somebody's got to restart those coals.

"Are you going to get up or what?"

"Getting up."

Hiccup got up, he dusted himself. Then he went back over and picked up the rocks again.

If this was supposed to make him stronger...

Zuko puts the cup on his head. Thanks to the Sensoriums, he doesn't need to refill it. Technically he doesn't need to relight the coals, either, but old habits die hard.

Hiccup can see at least a bit of what he's doing now in the way Zuko places his feet distinctly before making the jab with his fist that lights the coals. And a warrior's stance isn't unheard of in Viking society. They just tend to involve more slouching.

That whole lighting-fire-with-his-fists thing is new by any culture's standards. Except possibly Zuko's own, but he hasn't explained it yet, and doesn't again, once Hiccup is resituated in his stance.

Zuko's not big on explanations. Possibly because his training sessions tend to involve one explanation at the beginning, and then repetition - repetition - repetition for the rest of the time.

"I have...questions."

He went back to his stance.

"But they can wait."

He was starting to figure out how it worked.

"Good."

Good that the questions can wait. Because there's breathing to be done. Rocks to be squoze. Later, poles to be stood on.

Isn't kung-fu fun?

Having nothing to do while he watches Hiccup endure his way into becoming less of a wuss, Zuko imagines up a bowl of rice for breakfast. And yes, he will sit, and eat, and watch Hiccup stand (and possibly fall a couple more times) for the next hour. If the boy can take it.

That was a confirmation on the falling. Lots of that happened. Yes on the falling. Yep.

But eventually it was all over, and Hiccup flopped bonelessly to the ground. His whole body would've been soaked in sweat if it wasn't for that creepy cleaning thing the plant suits did. As it was, his hair was stuck to his forehead.

At least that one exercise was over. He wasn't sure what else Zuko had in store for him.

"What--what next?" Even exhausted, he'd try to--try to do whatever.

He has to think about this, because Hiccup isn't like a student he'd take on in the Fire Nation, or Aang, who's already going to come to him knowing three forms of bending and having gone through this stage of training around the time he could walk.

Nobody took the time to teach Hiccup these things. How to build up endurance. How to keep the body limber. How to build strength when you weren't born with the sort of body that's just plain strong to begin with. And if anybody needed these lessons, it was Hiccup.

"That's enough endurance for today," he says, after a while. "I'm going to teach you some stretches to do to keep yourself from getting too sore in the morning."

Too sore, in Zuko's book, would be literally too sore to move, so this is sort of relative.

"If you have questions, you can ask them after that."

"Okay. But right after that."

Or else he'd explode.

One of the other benefits of training in the Sensoriums is that your location isn't fixed. So if it is possible one could benefit, after a hard day's work, from stretching in a warm environment to rid the body of toxins, then in the Sensoriums, one can.

At Zuko's request, their surroundings change to the inside of a steam vent, where the ground is smooth enough and just cool enough to touch, but the air is warm enough to keep the sweating going. Zuko has unzipped his plantsuit and knotted the sleeves around his waist, and by the time he's done leading Hiccup through the stretches, they're both damp with as much condensation as with sweat.

Zuko places his hands together at the close of their lesson, and waits for Hiccup to bow before bowing back and leading him out of the steam vent, into the cooler air.

"Drink some water."

That's been another one of his orders. Water - lots of it. There's a clear stream running outside the vent. Zuko dips his hand in to get some water himself, and splashes some on his face and head to cool himself down.

"You had questions."

Hiccup scoops his hand into the stream and drinks, as ordered.

Questions, questions...

Will wind up with actual abs like that?

How does one exactly develop a manly swagger?

Where did you learn to be a sadist?

"You can light things on fire? That's what firebending is? I thought--I thought it was like a metaphor or just fancy language or something."

Zuko gives Hiccup the slightly perturbed look he's developed from the legions of people who haven't understood the concept of bending, much less the fire part - the look that's devolved from the "you're stupid and must have lived under a rock" that he USED to give people who asked him this question.

"No, it's pretty literal. Prince of the Fire nation, remember?"

Big honking burn scar all over half his face? Actual fire had to come in there somewhere.

"That's the part I can't teach you, though. Firebending is something you're born with. You weren't born with it."

As for the abs . . . that's a maybe there. And you develop a manly swagger after being beaten on by enough people to turn you into a sadist, then beating on those people back enough to sate said sadism. At least, where Zuko comes from.

"What will all this fighting look like? I mean, when I learn it? I've never actually seen you fight."

He wanted to know what kind of style he was going to end up fighting with.

Zuko splashes more water on the back of his neck. "You won't be able to fight like I can unless you keep up this training for another fourteen years."

He doesn't want to get Hiccup's hopes up too fast.

"But then what would it look like? I want to know what what I'm going to constantly fail at looks like."

Zuko considers this. "Okay. As long as you know this isn't going to happen overnight."

No going from squeezing rocks in a horse stance to defeating seven ninjas by yourself in a day. Sorry Hiccup.

Zuko steps back from the stream, where a wide meadow serves as a sufficient clearing, and waves Hiccup back.

He goes through one of his forms, first, and it doesn't look like anything so much as it looks like Zuko is showing off how quickly he can move, and how high his level of control over his body is. He goes from standing to sprawled on the ground and back in the blink of an eye, and he stops in positions that seem like he shouldn't possibly be able to balance that way, with one foot on the ground and the other up in the air like that, and held there, without even a shiver of effort.

He's graceful. But not like a dancer. Graceful like someone who has such an extensive knowledge of his own body that he can, and does, make it do anything he wants it to do.

"Stacy, I'd like an opponent. One of the Kyoshi Warriors."

The figure that appears is swathed in green, and possibly female. Her hair is long, and her face is painted, and her outfit is very obviously armored. She's holding a pair of golden fans as if they were dangerous.

Fans. Dangerous. Funny, right?

The AI and Zuko stare each other down for a few minutes, circling with careful foot placement. There's a lot about this way of fighting that's different from the Viking way, but the most visible is probably the way that every single motion is precise. Every footfall, every movement of the hands, is deliberate. Considered. Thought-out. This is a thinking warrior's fight.

The AI rushes first. Her technique is one of holds, throws, and specific blocks that turn Zuko's force against him. When she strikes, it's less a strike and more that her hands, her knees, feet, or weapons, are suddenly in the place where Zuko was going, and that breaks his stance. It's a good style. It turns Zuko's strength against him and makes it his weakness.

But Zuko's style is one of speed, evasion, quickness so fast Hiccup could be forgiven for thinking humans just couldn't move that quickly. His reflexes are lightning-quick. His form changes as quickly as a flickering flame.

He disarms the Kyoshi warrior, and the two circle again, unarmed on unarmed opponent, before rushing again, and this time Zuko is distinctly at advantage, in his light plantsuit. The AI's padded armor cushions blows from his fists, but is thin at the underarms and neck, and Zuko targets these points, as well as aiming his kicks and punches to the sides of her torso, again where her armor is light. The AI becomes unsteady from the pointed blows, and once she does, the fight is over quickly. She rushes one last time, and Zuko suddenly drops into a low stance that sweeps the other warrior off her feet. He signifies the end of the fight by kneeling over her with a clenched fist inches from her face.

"Like I said," he says, as the AI vanishes. "Give it about fourteen years." He eyes Hiccup skeptically. "Maybe fifteen."

There was something he understood. Something he realized as he watched Zuko fight. As he watched the AI fight, too.

It was how completely out of his depth he was. How weak he was. How helpless he was.

How hopeless he was.

"...Why are you teaching me when I'm that hopeless? Fifteen years worth of hopeless?"

There was something almost sad about his expression.

"Everyone else that's tried just gave up."

Usually they gave up at the part where he couldn't lift an axe.

"Because fifteen years of training is better than one year of no training during which you die."

Zuko crosses his arms, frowning. The kid is always doing this. Doubting himself when he should be nodding and saying 'Yes, Sifu, I understand I have many years of hard work ahead of me. I will work through these years with honor.' or something similarly devoted.

"I don't give up on anything. That's MY strength. This? I'm not actually good at this. I'm not talented. My SISTER is talented. AANG is talented. I'm a good firebender because I work hard, and I never give up on anything."

And, well, if Hiccup's going to look sad at this, the least Zuko can do is think of something that makes him sad too.

"And I don't give up on anyone, because enough people gave up on me . . . that if I did it too, I'd be dishonoring the people that didn't."

Okay, sad moment over. Angry Sifu Hotman is back.

"So stop questioning me, and stop questioning yourself. You're weak right now, but you're determined, and that's why you're going to succeed."

"For the record, I never said I was going to give up. I just didn't understand your reasons for this. Now I do."

He splashed water on his face.

"And what it all means is that I have a lot of work ahead of me."

Wiping the water from his eyes, he turned to face Zuko, still kneeling. He clasped his fist in his hand and bowed like Zuko had taught him.

"Thank you, Sifu, for giving me a chance."

And he meant that with all the respect he was capable of mustering, which was a surprising amount of respect from one so often completely sarcastic.

"Zuko! You're a sifu?" Of course the comment had a bit of a sarcastic sting to it, since Sokka knew very well that Zuko had taught Aang firebending. The Water tribesmen grinned, giving the pair a wave from the doorway.

"What are you teaching him? How to brood?"

"Ha ha."

Zuko WAS just about to bow back to Hiccup and dismiss him for the day, but here comes Sifu Number Two.

"Sokka, this is Hiccup. Hiccup, Sokka. He's from my world."

He assumes Hiccup hasn't met Sokka, mostly because he's gotten used to telling Hiccup things and isn't going to fall out of the lecturey groove anytime soon.

"Actually, I wanted you two to meet." He looks at Sokka. "You could help with this, since neither of you are benders, and there's only so much I know to teach a non-bender."

Sokka got a little wave.

"Hello. And if you decide to help teach me: welcome to the greatest single challenge you could ever undertake," was Hiccup's glib greeting. "But maybe you enjoy the tediousness of watching someone fall on their face over and over and over again. I know Zuko does."

"I dunno. Taking down the Fire Lord might have been bigger. Maybe not by much." Sokka grinned at Hiccup.

"Of course I'll help. What have you done with him so far?"

[For Hiccup, but open.]

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